The Untold Truth Of Chloe Cherry
The career of Chloe Cherry can be viewed in two distinct time periods, pre and post-"Euphoria." Prior to being cast in the HBO hit's second season as Faye, a young woman with an addiction to heroin, Cherry was best known for her work in the adult film industry, having sex on camera in hundreds of X-rated movies.
"Euphoria," however, proved to be a life-changing experience for Cherry, propelling her to mainstream fame and opening the door to an array of opportunities that never would have become available otherwise. As Cherry admitted in an interview with The Cut, these new possibilities have allowed her to branch out in the kind of ways she'd always dreamed of, from pursuing further acting roles to a whole other career in fashion to social media icon (her Instagram page boasts over a million followers and counting). As for the kind of acting roles she's seeking, the sky is the limit. "I feel like I could fulfill any different roles, far from my personality in real life," she declared. "I'm so far from being a heroin addict in real life, but I played that for Faye."
Fans of "Euphoria" have just gotten to know her from her role, and there's a lot more to know about this aspiring actor and the future that's unfolding before her. To find out more, keep on reading for a look at the untold truth of Chloe Cherry.
She was discovered on social media by Euphoria's creator
Chloe Cherry's journey from adult entertainment to regular television was about as unconventional as it gets. As Cherry explained in an interview with Nylon, "Euphoria" creator and showrunner Sam Levinson discovered her when he came across her Instagram feed. "He just thought I was funny," Cherry shared, revealing she was then contacted by a casting company about auditioning, "so I sent in tapes and stuff." What she put down on tape was impressive enough to warrant an in-person audition with Levinson. According to Cherry, she could sense his relief when she was actually able to deliver the goods, explaining that Levinson was downright impressed.
Being plucked from relative obscurity and cast in a critically acclaimed television show, she told Dazed Beauty, had never been the aim of her social media exploits, merely a happy accident. "Instagram for a long time has been this therapeutic outlet for me to just literally be my full self, where I don't have to feel the need to perform socially in any way," she said, describing her Instagram posts as "some weird diary. It's just me."
In fact, Cherry's role in "Euphoria" was initially intended to be far smaller than it became. "Originally she only had a couple of lines," Cherry said, "and then Sam turned her into something much bigger after I was cast."
She believes that working in the adult industry contributed to her eating disorder
Chloe Cherry has been open about struggling with an eating disorder, and she can trace its origins to her career in adult films. "It all started when this agent that I had when I was porn said to my face that I was fat," she revealed on an appearance on Alex Cooper's "Call Her Daddy" podcast. "He said, 'Everyone says that you're fat and the fastest way to lose weight is by not eating.' He said that to me and I was like, 'What the f***.'"
According to Cherry, she was just 18 at the time, and has come to realize that comment sparked her eating disorder. As Cherry recalled, "it was so f***ing freaky because no one in my whole life had ever said that I was fat and then it just became an obsession." That obsession, she added, led her to restrict herself to a 200-calorie-a-day vegan diet. "I was literally going crazy over it," she admitted.
After opening up to friends about what she was going through, she was able to ditch that starvation diet altogether. "I literally don't count a single calorie, I just eat whatever I want and do absolutely anything I want," she explained, noting that "my body actually looks better than it ever has my entire f***ing life."
If you are struggling with an eating disorder, or know someone who is, help is available. Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).
She over-prepared for her Euphoria audition
Being cast in as the heroin-addicted Faye in "Euphoria" was not something that Chloe Cherry took lightly, and she was determined to make the most of the rare opportunity. As Cherry told Variety, she was already a massive fan of the series before being cast, admitting that being on the "Euphoria" set "has been the ultimate experience of a lifetime."
In an interview for an HBO promotional video, Cherry already felt the show "was an absolute masterpiece" when she was invited to audition, and was determined to impress. "I had this whole thing prepared, and I was like, studying, like people that do heroin, like how they talk," she said. However, she realized she may have over-prepared when, during her audition, "Euphoria" showrunner Sam Levinson gave her some instruction on her character's dialogue. "Sam was like, 'Okay, say it just like how you would say it.' Then I started talking just like me, and he was like, 'That's so good!'" she recalled. "And I was like, 'Okay, if you say so.'"
Cherry expressed her hope that "Euphoria" would pave the way for further acting roles that don't involve having sex onscreen. "I want to do any and all roles," she told the Daily Beast. "I'll always love the adult industry, but it's not going to be my focus for a while. My main focus is definitely acting."
She's lost some friends due to her career choice
When discussing her past in porn, Chloe Cherry has never skirted around the subject. However, she has not been immune to the stigma attached. "The only thing that sucks about working in porn is just the way that people will treat you outside of the industry," Cherry told the "Call Her Daddy," podcast.
That was particularly true of her mother. "My mom said to me that sex work is the lowest thing a person can do," Cherry said in that same podcast. "That's like the one thing I'll share [publicly] that I disagree with so deeply. And I don't know if there are other people out there that agree with that but I think trying to put down your own family is lower." She also experienced similar "judgment" from some of her friends. "Just the way that, suddenly, my friends that I was friends with in high school didn't want to be friends anymore because they thought I was going to f*** their boyfriend. It's like, 'I don't want anything to do with your boyfriend,'" she added.
Besides, Cherry explained, she personally doesn't draw a distinction between porn and non-porn. "To me, it was all like, you're all acting, you're all beautiful people," she told Nylon. "So I guess as the viewer, I never really saw a difference in it, but I guess that was just me, maybe."
She credits her comedy chops to her X-rated past
While there are some who would view performing sex acts on camera as a detriment to a Hollywood career in "legitimate" film and TV projects, Chloe Cherry does not see things that way. In fact, she told Dazed Beauty, her past as an adult film star "really did prepare me a lot for experience in acting and performing. It helped me so much with my ability to improv, and I went into the show knowing exactly how to riff with my lines and my character."
In addition, as she explained in an interview with the Daily Beast, she'd "played so many different characters" in all those shoots that was utterly unfazed by whatever she was called upon to do as an actor. This, she added, is particularly true of the comedic flair she's demonstrated in her "Euphoria" role. "I've always had good comedic timing [in adult films]," she said. "A lot of my work's been very funny, and I got so much acting experience."
Her past, Cherry admitted, had also forced her to become almost preternaturally fast on her feet. "Can you imagine waking up in the morning, going to work, and then you learn what your character and lines are? Or finding out the day before?" she said. "They'll say, 'This is your stepbrother and you've been mad at him forever. OK, action.'"
She's long seen her sexuality as a type of superpower
Given the unique nature of Chloe Cherry's rise to fame, it shouldn't be surprising to learn that she's a very sexual person, and has never been particularly prudish about it. "I was always comfortable in my sexuality, loved feeling my sexual power, and loved turning people on," she told the Daily Beast. "I was very comfortable in my body, and proud of my body. I just know who the f*** I am. And I love doing s*** that makes people nervous."
That attitude was behind her decision to explore an adult career in the first place, initially dipping her toe into the world of X-ated entertainment to see if it would be a genre in which she could make her mark. "When I saw porn online, it just seemed really cool, I just always wanted to do it," she told Dazed Beauty. "Once I turned 18, I started to look into how I could start a career. I made the decision that I wanted to do it and it was crazy at that age."
Yet despite having made a living by performing sex acts in front of a camera, Cherry insists that her libido isn't anything out of the ordinary. "My sex drive is really average," she admitted in an interview with Paper. "I'm not super hypersexual and never was."
Chloe Cherry wants to see a change in Hollywood
Pursuing mainstream acting roles on the back of what she described to Variety as her "15 minutes of fame" has been one way that Chloe Cherry has chosen to capitalize on the unexpected fame she's experienced since being cast in "Euphoria." "It's weird," she told the Daily Beast. "Something came up in my life and now I'm going to follow it wherever it goes."
That hasn't been the only way she's chosen to exploit her newfound celebrity. In fact, she's also used her platform to advocate for Hollywood productions to become more open to hiring sex workers. "I think Hollywood has learned that you can and should cast sex workers, especially for sex scenes," she said in an interview with i-D. "Actors with non-traditional backgrounds are getting accepted more, and it's way less boring and way more authentic. It really doesn't matter what somebody did outside of Hollywood or outside their 'formal' acting career."
From her own personal perspective, Cherry believes that actors who've worked in porn can bring a lot to the table. "If you can establish a vaguely believable interaction with your co-star and then have good sex, then you made an amazing movie," she said of her experience in the adult world. "It was intensive acting prep, maybe the ultimate crash course."
Euphoria has opened a whole new path for Chloe Cherry
The first time Chloe Cherry found herself on a Hollywood set filming "Euphoria," she had an epiphany: many of the skills she learned shooting adult movies were not only transferable, they were downright identical. "I know how to be on my mark, how to be in the light, how to look at a certain place past the camera, have the timing down and then put my body in a specific position," she told i-D.
As a result, Cherry suddenly saw a new path appear before her, and she's intent on pursuing it as far as possible. Speaking with Nylon, Cherry described herself as "an actress, just through and through an actress. I've acted for a long time." In fact, she wants Hollywood to know that, beyond what she's done in "Euphoria," she has a lot more to offer. "I think that there are a lot of different roles and things that I could totally fill and really thrive in," she said, pointing to her "huge, huge range" as an actor. "I think that I could do so much, and I honestly like doing the tougher roles."
Not only does Cherry want to portray a wide variety of characters, she's also anxious to explore different genres. "I'd like to be on the next 'American Crime Story,' and I want to be the criminal," she told i-D, also expressing an interest in doing horror and comedy. "I'd love to do something with Bo Burnham, like a full-length mockumentary that's entirely improvised. That's where I think I'd be funniest. Loose plot, lots of improv? That's definitely up my lane."
She appeared in a Euphoria porn parody
Not only has Chloe Cherry appeared in "Euphoria," she's also starred in a adult film parody of "Euphoria." As Cherry told Nylon, she and an industry friend were "both huge fans of the show" and decided to put their own X-rated spin on it. "Fans really, really liked it," she said of the parody. "They thought it was awesome."
While there was speculation that "Euphoria" creator Sam Levinson cast Cherry after seeing her parody, Cherry shut that rumor down in an interview with Paper. According to Cherry, she'd been cast months earlier, but hadn't been able to work on the show because of the pandemic shutting down film and television production. Unable to shoot anything, porn or otherwise, she felt a parody of the show would intrigue the fans who were paying to see what she was doing on OnlyFans, which "was the way I was selling my content" at that point.
"It was funny because I made that probably five months after I was cast on the show," Cherry told Vulture. "It's funny the way people are reacting to it, like, 'She was discovered off a porn parody.' And I'm like, 'No, no, no, that was literally just something I made for my OnlyFans forever ago, and now everyone's finding it.'"
Chloe Cherry is trying to kick some bad habits
Like most people, Chloe Cherry has a few bad habits she's trying to remove from her life, two of which she listed for Interview Magazine. "Doubting myself, and smoking," she said. Unlike her "Euphoria" character, Cherry does not have a problem with substance abuse; in fact, Paper described her as "a homebody" whose biggest vice is smoking weed, and can't handle consuming more than one drink per evening.
However, Cherry admitted in an interview with Vulture, she did have her moments of hard partying during her teenage years. "I was not a drug addict," she insisted, revealing "the heaviest I've ever partied in my whole lifetime was when I was 14 years old. There were these crazy foam parties people I grew up with might remember."
As she remarked later in her chat with Interview, however, self-doubt seemed to be something that she'd managed to conquer. Discussing her future aspiration to take on more acting roles, she declared, "I just want to see what else I can do. There are no limits on what I'm willing to try."
She doesn't understand the obsession with her lips
On one hand, Chloe Cherry has been pretty much awestruck by how much media attention she's been getting from her role on "Euphoria." On the other, she's more than a little weirded out by how much of that attention has focused on one very specific aspect of her anatomy.
As she admitted in an interview with Variety, "it's crazy how many people talk about my lips being so big... The amount of headlines that I have seen and the amount of people posting and commenting about my lips has been surreal." As Cherry mused, she found it crazy that, although she got lip fillers at one point in her life, she never before experienced anyone remarking about their plumpness, "at least not to my face," she said. "I swear nobody in my life was like, 'Whoa Chloe those are insane.'" As a result, Cherry admitted it was "weird to see memes and stuff about it because these topics of conversation are on my body and I didn't totally comprehend what the big deal was."
Those memes and internet comments, she told Paper, also "hurt a lot because I had no idea." The experience, she added, had led her to ponder why "people think that it's okay to say that about someone's looks."
Chloe Cherry walked the runway at New York Fashion Week
There's been no surer sign that Chloe Cherry has entered the mainstream than her presence at 2022's New York Fashion Week. Not only was she in attendance, she also made her runway debut, modeling onstage for designer LaQuan Smith. Cherry was clearly moved by taking part in the show, judging by what she wrote on Instagram, accompanying a photo of herself on the runway. "I am so deeply grateful and inspired by this experience," she wrote. "I felt amazing."
Fans can expect to see more modeling in Cherry's future. "I signed with a modeling agency, Anti-Agency London, and I will be starting to model soon," she shared with Nylon in January 2022. Immediately after New York Fashion Week, Cherry hopped the pond to attend London Fashion Week and Milan Fashion Week. Dubbed "a fashion it-girl on the rise" by Grazia, Cherry reportedly made a splash at the runway presentations of various top designers, including Supriya LeLe, David Koma, and Chet Lo.
In March 2022, Cherry starred in her first fashion campaign; as The Face reported, Cherry is the featured model in "I'm Sorry," the third collection from artist, photographer, and designer Petra Collins.
She ad-libbed her most memorable Euphoria dialogue
Once Chloe Cherry's Faye made her debut in the second season of "Euphoria," it didn't take long for the character to become a fan-favorite. That was apparent on social media, with fan tweets such as "faye is the funniest character in euphoria," and "FAYE FROM EUPHORIA SEASON 2 SUPREMACY." However, those fans likely didn't realize that much of the character's snappy, quotable dialogue came not from the show's writers, but from Cherry herself, with "Euphoria" creator Sam Levinson encouraging her to improvise her own lines while shooting. "Sam would literally just say, 'OK Chloe, say whatever you want.' So, I would just say anything," she told Dazed Beauty. As Cherry told Paper, she came up with those lines on the spot, from her perspective that Faye is "the only person in the room who can see how ridiculous the situation is."
In an interview with "The Polyester Podcast's The Sleepover Club," Cherry admitted she "improv'd some of my favorite lines of mine." In that interview, she praised Levinson for the trust he places on the "Euphoria" actors. "Sam is so great. He's so creative with his directing ... He will let us improv. He let me improv every scene we shot, basically," she said. "We would shoot it normal, and then he'd be like, 'Okay, now this take Chloe just say whatever you want.' There was like way more of it. I would go on and on."
The reason why Chloe Cherry is done with adult movies
Prior to joining "Euphoria" in the show's second season, Chloe Cherry was best known for appearing in adult films, and she made a lot of them. In fact, noted i-D, she's starred in more than 200 X-rated movies, while her PornHub page has attracted more than 120 million views.
Despite the success she's achieved in the adult industry, Cherry doesn't see herself going back to making X-rated videos. In fact, she told Paper that her career was over, explaining that it's "really hard on your body." That, she added, had always been her intention, because she "never really planned on doing it past the age of 20 ... It just feels like now is the perfect time to leave."
Cherry also explained why she's always found adult films to have a somewhat "surreal" aspect to them. "I always say porn isn't real sex. It just looks like sex, so we call it sex," she said. "But people aren't doing things to pleasure each other. It's for a third party that's not even there, so it's never going to be anything close to 'normal.'"